I've known Drew since he was little and now he's a senior at Parkview, which kind of makes me feel old. I've had these senior pictures on my radar all summer before finally locking it down in August. The whole shoot was super relaxed and a lot of fun, not least because Drew was so comfortable in front of the camera.
I haven't added a lot to the blog this summer, but I'm happy to say it's because I was too busy working, and not because I didn't have anything to post. More on the work later, but I spent the summer down in my hometown of Springfield, Mo. where my girlfriend (and now fiancée) Christina had an internship. I didn't feel like the place we were staying was great for a home office so I went looking for some coworking locations in town, and that brought me to Originate.
I've never used a coworking space before, and there are a lot of great things I could talk about with this one, located in Missouri State's tech incubator, the eFactory. The free coffee from Brick and Mortar, the great security for my computer and hard drives, the monthly barbecues, the friendly atmosphere and not spending the day sitting alone in my grandma's old house. So many things.
Originate offers all those coworking benefits, but goes a lot further by plugging you into Springfield's entrepreneurial tech scene in a real and immediate way. It may seem crazy to talk about Springfield's tech/startup scene, but it's there, it's growing and there are people working really hard to build it up. Many of them are at Originate, or working next door in the eFactory, or passing through for a meeting, or swinging by on Wednesday morning for 1 Million Cups or for the monthly IdeaWakeup. There is a lot going on.
I was only at Originate for two months and I'm super terrible at networking, so I didn't take advantage of half the benefits that came with working there. But joining up definitely felt like I was part of something very real and active in town and I'm going to miss it.
Jeremy Adams runs Originate and works there with the team from his other company, Verv.
Chad Boyd working on his startup, Txt2Give.
A meeting of the minds in the eFactory lounge. Free coffee on the right.
Eric Chambers, left, and Nick Wilczewski with Torrent Consulting.
My first assignment for Feast magazine! The Easy Tiger cocktail at Bangkok Gardens in Columbia, Mo. for the July issue.
Went deep sea fishing south of Houma, La. at the start of the summer. Having grown up in the Midwest, I'm still always surprised and fascinated that people make their living on the ocean.
I was able to take more pictures for Public House during American Craft Beer Week in May, where they had a tap takeover with Piney River Brewing Company. They make great beer and the more I spend time there, the more I appreciate the Public House as a gathering place for really nice people.
Brian Durham, owner and brewer at Piney River Brewing Company
It turns out that one of the best things about my Rolla neighborhood is the high school baseball field around the corner. I can see the outfield and hear the ball being hit from my kitchen and it's pretty great.
I recently photographed the interior of the Missouri University of Science and Technology's new Hasselmann House Alumni Center in Rolla. The shoot was for the architect, Bob Cunningam + Associates in Columbia, and I really enjoyed it. I photographed it on the same day as a major donor banquet so the place looked amazing, but also had a lot of people passing through, which was a bit of a challenge at times. The building was great, though, and I'm looking forward to shooting the exteriors this spring.
Mike Carlson and Kevin McLaughlin with the commercial real estate company Newmark Grubb Zimmer for an ad announcing the launch of their St. Louis office.
Trout season in Missouri starts on March 1, which is a big deal for anglers but also happened to be the day after a pretty large snowstorm this year. I waited for the roads to clear up a bit, then headed over to Maramec Spring Park outside of St. James to check it out.
A few personal snapshots from Christmas Eve at my Grandma Franks' house that I’m just now sorting through. Grandma had just died two days earlier at the age of 94 and had managed to live at home almost right up to the end, except for the last couple of months in a care facility.
My mom’s side of the family is large and close but Grandma had long since stopped hosting family gatherings at her house, which my grandpa built and my mom and her four siblings grew up in. Five kids, 11 grandchildren, spouses and oodles of great grandchildren… it’s more than a nonagenarian should have to deal with in her own home.
But since she wasn’t living at home anymore, the family had already planned to have Christmas Eve at her house for one last time this year. This was one of my favorite Christmas traditions when I was a kid (partly because the number of gifts grandparents and four sets of aunts and uncles can give you is astounding.)
In a very cool way, the house itself hadn’t changed that much since the 1950s and was always like walking into a retro furniture store or 1950s museum. As I hit my 30s, I grew more and more amazed that Grandma Franks still lived there and I could walk around my mom's childhood home. The house always felt like a character in the family as much as anyone else and was a perfect backdrop during the holidays. It had been more than 15 years since I have seen this much family in the house and it felt very natural and wonderful, even if it was for the last time.
The most prized possession of Grandma's: the amazing painting of a lake with a light inside. Apparently, my Mom and her sisters (including Aunt Trish, right) used to kiss boys under it during dates.
Red cups and paper plates are staples of our gatherings.
And a few pictures that I took at Grandma's house back in 2012.
